All talk, no action on student personal finance bill

June 2, 2014|Beth Kassab, Local News Columnist

Teaching kids how to avoid debt, balance a checkbook and save for the future makes so much sense that nobody wants to say they are against it.

Ten Florida senators and more than 40 members of the House clamored this year to attach their names to a bill that would have required all Florida high school students to take a personal finance class before they graduate. Right now students are only required to learn financial tidbits crammed into a social studies class.

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford wrote a letter supporting the idea. The Florida Chamber of Commerce backed the bill. So did the credit unions and the banks.

It seemed like everybody had joined hands to sing "Kumbaya" over the idea of teaching students how to handle money, especially as more students leave college burdened with student loans.

Now for the letdown.

This political darling of a bill that seemed about as controversial as saying June is humid failed.

Leaders in the Florida House didn't give the bill a single hearing. No debate whatsoever.

Translated from Tallahassee-speak, that means someone important didn't like the bill.

A secretary for Rep. Janet Adkins, who runs the K-12 Subcommittee where the bill died, said she wasn't available for comment.

Rep. Marlene O'Toole, who is in charge of the Education Committee and could have pushed the bill forward, didn't return messages.

O'Toole has said she thought too much was going on in Florida education to add another course requirement.

"She was concerned there were so many moving parts and so many changes in education taking place she didn't think the timing was right to address this," said Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, the Fort Myers Republican who was the chief sponsor of the bill in the House.

That excuse is weak when you consider that lawmakers added all kinds of new requirements for school districts this year.

For example, lawmakers decided students' scores on the Algebra II and Biology I end-of-course exams will count for 30 percent of their final grades. They also decided that students must pass the Geometry end-of-course exam to receive a college-track "scholar" diploma.

The House K-12 Subcommittee, which couldn't find time for the personal finance bill, found plenty of time to hear a bill that would mandate students learn about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

That bill didn't pass, but lawmakers used it to showboat their patriotism. In-depth lessons about 9/11, one of the most historically significant events of our time, are already common, but lawmakers debated it anyway.

There is an entire section of Florida law devoted to listing politically mandated course work.

Florida Statute 1003.42 includes worthy topics such as the Holocaust, the Bill of Rights and even "proper flag display and flag salute." Others such as "kindness to animals" and the "benefits of sexual abstinence" seem more like political whims than education standards.

The point is that if House leaders like Weatherford and O'Toole wanted to make teaching personal finance a priority, it would have gotten done.

But the essential life skill of money management didn't pass muster.

And that should be outrageous to every parent and student in this state.

Yes, teachers, principals and superintendents are constantly bombarded with politicians trying to tell them how to do their jobs.

But the pols passed on the one change that could make a solid, tangible difference to students.

Surveys have shown that only 75 percent of adults know about compound interest. And fewer adults understand the basics of investing.

A University of Florida study showed that students in states where personal finance is a requirement are less likely to max out their credit cards and more likely to pay off their bills each month.

Both Fitzenhagen and Sen. Dorothy Hukill, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, say they will make another run at it next year.

Tell your representatives (find them at MyFloridaHouse.com) that teaching personal finance is more important than making sure students don't get in trouble if they bite a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.